Port-of-Spain mayor Louis Lee Sing says the real sheriff of the capital city is Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and he hopes she has the badge. Lee Sing was responding to statements by Downtown Owners and Merchants Association (DOMA) president Gregory Aboud that he (Lee Sing) is the sheriff of Port-of-Spain. Aboud, in a radio programme, made the comment in relation to three murders in the city over the weekend. Calling for more police patrols, Aboud said the city police was failing and because they reported to the Port-of-Spain City Corporation, Lee Sing must be the sheriff of his jurisdiction. Lee Sing, in a telephone interview countered: "I know I am the mayor. I don't know I am the sheriff."
He added: "I wish I could truly be the sheriff. If I had the resources and autonomy nobody would be committing crime in the city." The mayor shifted blame on the PM, whom he said was chairman of the National Security Council and commander-in-chief of all the military and paramilitary forces.
He added: "Further, she is the one who appointed the National Security Minister and her own adviser on national security matters. "The buck stops with the PM. The three murders in Port-of-Spain over the weekend were a national security matter." Lee Sing added there were 13 police stations over the four square miles of Port-of-Spain. He said: "Port-of-Spain should be the safest city in the world. These police stations in the city are not under my jurisdiction. "Belmont Police do not report to me. St Clair Police do not report to me."
Lee Sing said as for his own municipal police force was concerned, he did not have enough resources to patrol Port-of-Spain and keep the city safe. He said there were some officers from his batch who were so delinquent he had to reduce them to daily-rated staff. He said he then was left with 100 men. Out of this, he said, 56 were required daily to man police stations, crematoriums, cemeteries, markets, other Government institutions and also do clerical work in the corporation's office. Of the remaining 44, there were those who had to go on leave or training and who got sick, Lee Sing said. He said he met recently with Commissioner of Police Dwayne Gibbs to express his concern that the city was not as safe as it ought to be.
Gibbs, he said, indicated he was concerned too, not so much with setting up more police posts, but with having more police visibility on the streets. "I am optimistic Gibbs will find an answer soon but at this time the results are not as we expect," the mayor said. Offering his own solution to the crime problem, Lee Sing said T&T needed a social revolution to transform gangsters and aspiring criminals. He insisted mandatory national service for young people, who fell through the cracks, was the answer.